Was Jaguar and Land rover, too big a bite?
September 7th 2008 13:06
Well AUTOLOUD hates to say I told you so, but, I did tell you so!
I have talked previously about the sale of Jaguar and Land-Rover by Ford to Tata and to refresh your memory, I wasn’t happy about it.
It has now become public knowledge that Mr TATA took a bridging loan from Citibank to buy these brands, that’s right, a $ 2 Billion bridging loan ….. GULP! I would hate to see the monthly repayments on that one!
That is probably the least of the problems that Mr Tata currently has on his plate.
His Indian people’s car the $ 2500 Nano was to be built in a Greenfield assembly plant somewhere in West Bengal. Problem here is the locals have decided they want nothing to do with it, so much so the Army was called in last week to quell the riots.
To make things worse, Land Rover sales in the USA have plummeted, No maybe base jumped would be a better description. Of course they are not alone in experiencing this, these days anything with a 4x4 badge is marginally less popular than the Black Death.
I did read somewhere that Fiat (who partner Tata in various markets) have decided they want to help Tata with Jaguar, Oh my god! If the Italians do get their hands on Jaguar, it will make the build quality of a 1970’s British Leyland era XJ6 seem like a shiny new Hyundai!
Whats next ? A Jaguar badged Nano perhaps?
I have talked previously about the sale of Jaguar and Land-Rover by Ford to Tata and to refresh your memory, I wasn’t happy about it.
It has now become public knowledge that Mr TATA took a bridging loan from Citibank to buy these brands, that’s right, a $ 2 Billion bridging loan ….. GULP! I would hate to see the monthly repayments on that one!
That is probably the least of the problems that Mr Tata currently has on his plate.
His Indian people’s car the $ 2500 Nano was to be built in a Greenfield assembly plant somewhere in West Bengal. Problem here is the locals have decided they want nothing to do with it, so much so the Army was called in last week to quell the riots.
To make things worse, Land Rover sales in the USA have plummeted, No maybe base jumped would be a better description. Of course they are not alone in experiencing this, these days anything with a 4x4 badge is marginally less popular than the Black Death.
I did read somewhere that Fiat (who partner Tata in various markets) have decided they want to help Tata with Jaguar, Oh my god! If the Italians do get their hands on Jaguar, it will make the build quality of a 1970’s British Leyland era XJ6 seem like a shiny new Hyundai!
Whats next ? A Jaguar badged Nano perhaps?
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